Texas’ proposed rules requiring the cremation or burial of fetal remains will take effect Dec. 19, according to state health officials. Despite intense outcry from the medical community and reproductive rights advocates, the state will prohibit hospitals, abortion clinics and other health care facilities from disposing of fetal remains in sanitary landfills, instead allowing only cremation or burial of all remains — regardless of the period of gestation.

Texas health officials, who quietly proposed the rules in July, are adopting the new requirements with few changes following months of public comment periods, two hours-long hearings and more than 35,000 comments submitted to the state’s Health and Human Services Commission. FULL REPORT